Circular Walks along The Chiltern Way - Pirton (my village) to Hitchin and then Walk 11 Gosmore, Ley Green and Preston
Uncle Rob arrives to meet Leo for the first time. Leo (our two year old grandson) stayed last night and had his usual fun. I tried to get him to wear a 1000miles4hope shirt but he told me it was 'too big' and was having none of it. We point out that Rob's nose is upside down and ask Leo to turn it round. Leo eyes Rob for a while and decides they are not yet well enough acquainted for him to oblige. He quickly turns to grandma Karen and corrects the alignement of her nose. In fifteen minutes Rob sees how much energy and attention grandchildren attract and anticipates the exhaustion Sophia promises in a few months time.
We head off and I promise to get us to the start of this circular walk in Hitchin and give Rob every opportunity to take control but he lets me lead. Down Hambridge Way we meet Leslie from the village on her horse and chat about the kids. All growing up so fast and Rob snapping away at horse and rider to add to his collection. 
At Oughtonhead Common we bump in to Mike from Sunderland. Down for the day with his mate who is at a Network Rail meeting in Hitchin. Mike is birdwatching and his best sight today is a kingfisher by a pond. We talk football and suggest Sunderlands manager is a good one. No way he says. Didn't want him and still don't and he is still a fat Geordie to me. We ask him if he can guess who Rob supports with the clue that it is a team that had great expectations and is not fulfilling them. He suggests Chester City and we tell him he is close.............The bit Rob enjoyed the best was me admitting on the outskirts of Hitchin that I am not sure where we are. I had been confidently walking in the right general direction hoping to recognise somewhere but eventually had to admit I had no clue which way to go. We ask advice of people approaching. They tell us they are not local, just down for a couple of days from Perth in Scotland seeing grandchildren, yet confidently point us the right way. Rob can't believe that strangers from Perth knew Hitchin better than Len, the local! I point out it is his fault as our navigator and, in a dereliction of duty, had failed to check on my copmetency at the start.
In Hitchin we said hello to Alinghams one of the best butchers in the world. Took him in for a sausage and told him how the queues extend round the corner of market square at 6.30 am on Christmas Eve as people come to collect their orders.
Wonderful countryside as we set off towards Ley Green. We start a conversation about mortality and how our views change on it as we age. I am in the camp of Allende that life is a lot of noise between two silences. Rob confronted mortality early in life with the first shock realisation that one day his parents would die and then imediately the even bigger shock that one day he would die. A couple of miles passed in a blink as we bounced back and forth managing to mix in Buddhism and the balancing of life as a struggle with inner peace and harmony.
We successfully worked out how to operate all the various new gate technologies to get through and shut them all behind. Rob shows great concern at one gate left open and a lone sheep in one of the fields. Should it be open and has that sheep escaped? I take the view the gate is so wide open and so close to the farmhouse it must be ok. I hope so.
We now consume five miles at least talking about a book I have started writing. Short stories constructed around a Gestalt idea. Rob loves them and we have a long conversation about how they can be useful. One of them was very useful as we talked about the notion of things we start, taking little time at the beginning, as time goes on they have a big middle (usually when we realise we have taken on too much) and crash in to each other raising our stress levels and then have no end. We went through the challenges of stopping things or rescheduling them and how we try to defend them and then often fail. The message of the conversation is to recognise up front that starting things is easy but leads to lots of activity later so think about this before committing. At this point I meet an image of future Rob who has come to sit by a path beside us to express the challenges of Offa's Dyke. I put my arm round him and tell him to keep going. We will get to the end I promise. 
We are lost again around Austage End and Ley Green but that is ok as we are adding miles and deep in conversation. Back with the book, Rob is shaping it up for me and I like his ideas.
We get to the Red Lion in Preston at 1.55 for lunch. The board outside says Real Ale, Good Food and Warm Welcome. We have met these misleading signs before! We go in and ask if they are doing food but are told they close in five minutes. We thought this was the kitchen but it was made clear he meant the pub.
We grab a quick orange and lemonade and meet a wonderful lady called Francis but known as Frankie who insists on making a donation before taking the arm of her friend and head out across the village. As we leave the pub after our 5 minute stay we hear the door emphatically being locked behind us. Trade must be fantastic in pubs to kick out customers wanting to spend money on food and drink.
We are returning to Hitchin and I take Rob in to the Hair Shop which is the best hairdresser in the world. I introduce him to Michelle my hairdresser and the great family of people in the shop. Michelle went to travel the world last year and we all missed her and love having her back for a while. Her travelling spirit remains and maybe one day she will be off again. 
We have to stop by as the shop is now on our 1000miles4hope route. A final cup of tea in Halseys near Hitchin Church and we are on the final stretch. Our only encounter on the final leg back to Pirton is meeting a man walking his dog and asking if we have seen a brown cocker. We say no and I explain to Rob he is asking about a dog Spaniel. As we go along we come across lost cocker and shout back. We now have the problem that the owner is walking with a stick and cannot go fast and Murphy his 14 year old cocker is deaf and will not respond to him or us. As Rob approachies Murphy is scared and moves ahead fast. Rob has never been in this situation before - he is the one normaly walking away from scary dog.
Emboldened by this new experience, Rob speeds up to overtake aforesaid cocker only for Murphy to speed up in turn, while all the time man with stick is falling further and further behind and out of sight. Eventually Rob gives up and stops and so does Murphy who keeps an eye on Rob. I go back to walk with his owner until we can reconnect the two. As we move on we look back to see owner sitting and catching his breadth reunited with Murphy.Our longest walk so far.....and still cold and it was still grey.....but great to be out and looking forward to some more miles tomorrow.
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